Patients with cardiac ailments are sometimes treated with heart pumps adapted to be inserted into the heart through adjoining blood vessels and configured to assist the natural cardiac pump function or to replace natural cardiac pump function by a continuous pumping operation.
In one common approach, an introducer sheath is used to gain vascular access prior to insertion of a medical device such as a heart pump. The introducer sheath includes a hemostatic valve that prevents blood leakage from the proximal end of the introducer sheath upon insertion of the introducer sheath into a blood vessel. The hemostatic valve should prevent excessive blood leakage when no objects are present in the valve or when guidewires, catheters, blood pumps, or other objects are inserted through the valve. One of the primary causes of excess leakage in an introducer sheath is damage to or perforation of the hemostatic valve.